Saturday afternoon, Jack Turner and Charly Minkler were collecting signatures in the parking lot in front of Durango High School. Their supporters were on the curb waving signboards as if there was a going-out-of-business sale.
Just the opposite. Early in the afternoon, both Turner and Minkler said they had so far collected“well over 100 signatures, including from their morning in Bayfield. As unaffiliated candidates it is signatures, 600 of them, which will put them on the ballot in November. They were optimistic.
Turner’s district is mostly the city of Durango and Minkler’s district is to the east. There are Democratic candidates for the two seats who reached the ballot through traditional county assemblies.
There are no Republicans running. It may be largely anecdotal, but after the November 2018 election narrowly put Democrat Clyde Church in Republican incumbent Brad Blake’s seat, Republicans were heard to say, we can’t win, Durango always outvotes us.
Given their party’s absence from the ballot, Republicans ought to spend some time with Turner and Minkler. Turner sounds as though he is a real independent, apolitical, saying repeatedly that he’s only interested in imaginative and practical solutions to moving the county forward. Republicans can be practical. And Minkler, from early conversations, might have a bit of Republican in him under the unaffiliated label.
More importantly, both individuals ought to be on the November ballot. The eventual holders of the two seats – Marsha Porter-Norton is the Democrat facing Turner and Matt Salka is the Democrat opposing Minkler – ought to have had to compete with experience, ideas and energy. The county’s future will be better assured if voters have a chance to compare and contrast two candidates.
This Saturday, Turner and Minkler will be in Ignacio at Porky’s Smokehouse in the morning and back at DHS in the afternoon. A third signature-gathering effort will take place June 20. Petitions can be signed by any registered voter in the county, with or without a party. Signatures are not limited by district. And, with laptops dialed to the county’s registration rolls, names and addresses can be confirmed on the spot.
Out of respect for the coronavirus, the candidates and their supporters have been in masks and practicing distancing. Pens are disposable and there is plenty of sanitizer.
To provide La Plata County residents with competitive races for commissioner in November, Turner and Minkler have to be on the ballot. Sign their petitions to make that possible.
